


Reunion

by bipabrena



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/M, Hange dies and travels to the other side, Hange feels guilt for feeling she failed Erwin and he comforts her, I won't rewrite this when the chapter is out so I'm just giving some context, I wrote this when the spoilers came out not the chapter, M/M, They discuss their comrades and they discuss Levi, When she reaches the afterlife she meets Erwin, and Eruri's feelings and their love towards each other, she suffers memory loss and so a part of the fic is her recovering that memory, so I basically filled in the blanks with the little information we had, through reliving what happened in the plane
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:34:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26291212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bipabrena/pseuds/bipabrena
Summary: MANGA SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 132!I wrote this before the chapter came out, so I only worked with the small spoilers we had. I filled in the blanks with what I wanted to happen.After Hange dies, she seems to be buoyed in a weightless flight. Suffering memory loss, she has no clue where she's standing or who she is once she lands on a blank, empty hallway. There's only one thing she can remember. Two simple words from a familiar voice:"Later, Hange."But something happens, and she's suddenly stuck inside a body in which she cannot move or speak, but only spectate. That body turns out to be hers, and she relives everything that happened before she leapt to sacrifice herself. When she's brought back to her current reality and she remembers everything, she desperately tries to find Levi, but ends up finding something greater.Erwin.
Relationships: Levi/Erwin Smith, Levi/Hange Zoë
Comments: 20
Kudos: 78





	Reunion

Hange’s body felt limp as she fell.

She felt slight vertigo, but also a sense of liberation. Her body felt a particular rhythm, as though she were in a weightless flight, buoyed up by the liberation of her mind being entirely untroubled.

With a soft sigh, her eye closed.

Allowing herself to be carried along by whatever was holding her, she simply relaxed, and allowed it all to let go.

Suddenly, vertigo overcame her completely, and she felt dizzy as she seemed to be falling faster. Hange swore she would splatter on the ground, that she would die a second time, and that truly this was it for her.

With a gasp, she landed, but it didn’t hurt.

Everything simply went black.

When she opened her eye again, she didn’t know where she was. Her mind was utterly blank, and she even struggled to remember **_who_** she was.

She took in her surroundings.

Completely blank.

A white, long hallway. That was pretty much it.

She decided to walk through it. She pressed a hand to her head as her eye narrowed uncomfortably.

All she could remember was those words.

_“Later, Hange.”_

It was a soft voice. A nice voice.

A familiar one.

She could circle it in wonder, but couldn’t quite put her finger around it. Frankly, she didn’t seem capable of thinking of anything.

Everything in her mind was as blank as this hallway.

A strong breeze wound past her, and she shivered. She rose her arm to protect her face, and lowered it once it passed.

She stiffened as something worked through her mind.

Something materialised to her left, on what was a white, empty wall. Her brows creased in curiosity as something seemed to occur.

She saw something, as though it were some sort of play.

She could see a face. One little eye, while everything else was covered entirely. It was a slanted eye, and the dark lashes served to bring out its steel-blue colour.

Little by little, shadows began to materialise behind that face.

As though a camera were zooming out, she could now see more clearly, and saw the figure in its entirety, along with the people who were appearing around it.

So many unfamiliar faces.

But they looked worried.

As in first person, she could see a hand raise before her eye, as though it had been her own hand, her own body.

Was this a memory?

While that hand was in the air and moving slightly, as though emphasising a strong point, the people in the background went pale. Their eyes widened, and their brows creased as a strong, startled frown contorted on their expressions.

Some of them pleaded, spoke passionately, but Hange heard nothing. Only silence.

Why did they look so terribly panicked?

Their eyes spoke so much.

But the eye before her, the eye she was most interested in, didn’t seem to have a reaction. The figure did not react.

Silence. Nothing.

And then, it moved.

It eased a hand over its head, and held onto the back. With its eye closed, the figure held the bandages, and its arm moved in circles as it undid them from its face. The bandages withered away into the air, and the figure opened its eye again.

His eye.

It was a man.

A heavily scarred man.

She swore she’d seen him before. She knew she had.

“Alright,” he said.

Hange’s eye widened. It seemed the screen that projected this event suddenly had volume of its own.

“If you believe that is the best choice, then I’ll trust your judgment.”

“C-Captain!” a young man with slightly shaggy hair and a goatee scowled at him. “We can’t allow Hange-san to do this!”

Hange-san?

Were they talking about her?

“It’s okay, Jean,” she heard her own voice. “We all dived into this knowing we could die, right?”

The people behind the one called Captain looked distressed.

“If I don’t do this, we won’t fix the plane, and we won’t be able to get to Eren. It has to be done. It’s my part, and after that, I know you’ll do yours.”

The one called Jean slowly looked down as his lids dropped sadly.

“Armin,” her voice called, and a blond, young man with wide eyes perked up. “Will you look after the Survey Corps?”

“M-me!?” he frowned. “I… I could never…”

“Considering our circumstances, I don’t believe you have much of a choice,” the perspective heightened as Hange assumed the person she spectated stood up. “We all have to do our part. I believe in you. In all of you.”

Hange felt something strong and painful rip through her body.

Everyone seemed to move on. They walked through a room. They gave the person she spectated some weapons, and they went out again.

She said her goodbyes to everyone, and she left the short Captain for last.

They shared a look, and Hange could feel her pulse quicken as she looked down at his face. Something about it was beautiful. Like he were someone she knew, someone dear to him.

Hange jolted as everything shook around her.

An earthquake?

She squeezed her eye shut, and when she opened it again, everything was before her clearly. What she saw in the screen was now so vivid that she was seeing it through her own eye.

It was happening. She was **_living_** it.

“You’ll get mad at me for this, shorty, but what’re you gonna do about it? Kill me?” she jested with a grin.

His brows rose.

With a soft sigh, she held his shoulders with care. She reached down, leaning to his face as she struggled to maintain a firm breath.

His eye widened as she drew closer to his face.

Her breath tickled him, and she moved one hand to cup his cheek. She closed her eye and brought their lips together.

His eye was wide open, and as she softly kissed him, the world fell away.

His mouth remained limp as her surprisingly soft lips moved on his, and her thumb glided over his soft skin.

After some seconds, his eye half-lidded, until it shut completely.

He opened his mouth slightly to return the affection, and soon after their lips moved together softly and rhythmically as their surroundings ceased to exist, and all the onlookers could do was watch quietly out of respect.

She pulled back with a soft and long inhale. His eye remained closed, and his lips stayed parted, as though he were waiting for her lips to touch his again.

When he realised this wouldn’t happen, he opened his eye.

She blushed as her lips curved down in an uncomfortable frown. He didn’t blush, but he, too, felt awkward.

“I don’t think he’d kill me for that, would he?” she asked.

He seemed surprised.

Hange, who seemed to be moving and talking without a choice, as though she were stuck inside a body she was forced to spectate as it did what it wanted, could not help wondering who **_he_** was.

But the man before her seemed to understand.

His eye wavered, and his brows furrowed ever so slightly. A strong emotion glimpsed in his narrowed eye.

She then sighed.

“Alright… I’m ready,” she glimpsed down at herself to look at her weapons, then up at him again. “Off I go.”

He nodded quietly.

She turned over and looked down. The Hange that spectated was utterly horrified at the sight.

Giants. Hundreds of them.

No… wait, they had a name. What was their name?

“Look at them,” she sighed. “All these wonderful titans waiting for me.”

Yes! That was the name. Titans.

“You lived and died a nutjob, shitty glasses,” the Captain said, and Hange turned to look at him. She grinned, and his lips surprisingly curved up in the slightest of smiles.

“Thanks for everything, Hange-san,” she looked to find the young man with shaggy hair. Jean.

“We’ll stop Eren and put an end to this. We promise,” Armin said.

She nodded. “I know you will… Commander Arlert,” she smiled, and he blushed. A beautiful girl with black hair next to him smiled very slightly in pride.

More people said their goodbyes once more. A young man with very short hair, a young woman with wavy, black hair and droopy eyes, and a dark-skinned man who had tears in his eyes.

Hange felt something strong when seeing him.

She then looked at him. At the Captain.

She spoke to him in a gentle tone that surprised herself.

“See you, Levi.”

Levi… that was his name.

His eye saddened.

“… Later, Hange.”

She smiled sadly at him. She then looked down with a nervous sigh.

Hange shot Levi a final look. She felt so strongly for him, and she had no idea why. She somehow felt prepared for whatever it was she was about to do, but when she looked at him, her resolve wavered.

She wanted to stay with him.

But something went through her mind.

A chiselled and very handsome blond with striking, icy-blue eyes. He had a kind smile, and somehow, his sight made power surge through her.

Her brows creased as confidence overcame her. She looked down, and she jumped.

That’s when Hange jolted again, and she was back in the white hallway.

Her pupil quivered as she was in a complete daze.

“… Levi?” she mumbled with a hand on her head. “Levi?” she looked around as she raised her voice. “Levi!”

She ran through the long hallway as she tried finding him.

She panted as she ran, and everything seemed to be coming back to her. Everything.

The Survey Corps. The titans. Their mission. Eren.

Her mind was no longer blank. She no longer felt trapped inside a puzzled body. She knew everything, and felt a sense of urgency.

She had died.

She’d been burned alive. She had died.

So, why was she here?

 ** _Where_** was she?

The hallway seemed to reach an end as what seemed dark in the distance suddenly turned lighter, and she ran past that opening.

She tripped over her own feet. The cool air from the hallway was replaced with warmth, and she fell and rolled down a hill, until she came to a stop.

“… Ow,” she rubbed her head as she sat up. “… Huh?” her eye widened as she took in her surroundings.

There were a lot of trees in the area, and beautiful, untainted land that stretched for miles. There was a gorgeous lake before her, and a field full of lilies and other precious flowers that moved with the wind.

“… Wow,” she heard a soft but imperial voice.

She gasped, feeling a tremble all over her body as she recognised that voice.

Her mouth hung in a painful, disbelieving frown as she looked to the side, and someone approached her. She followed their movements with her head until they were right in front of her.

“And here I thought I’d never see you again. I’m glad, though considering the reason you arrived here, I’m not sure I should be.”

She felt her eye sting.

“… Erwin…” she muttered.

“Would it be okay for me to be selfish?” he asked. “To not worry for once and just allow myself to feel?”

Her jaw quivered in sheer disbelief and overcome emotion as he talked.

“I wish you didn’t have to be here. I wish you could’ve stayed there. But Hange…” his eyes softened. “I’m far too happy to see you.”

With a desperate gasp, she pushed herself off the ground and leapt in his arms.

“I’m sorry…” she squeaked, “I’m so sorry, Erwin.”

He returned the hug, and his brows furrowed with a smile as his head moved to find her face. He tried pulling back to see her, but her grip was strong.

“I failed you,” she said. “I couldn’t prevent Eren… Zeke… the Yeagerists. All of this happened because I wasn’t good enough.”

His smile reverted.

“If it had been you… if only you’d been there, none of it would have happened.”

He felt her shake in his arms as she wept.

She opened her eye and stopped crying as she finally realised. She pulled back, moving her hands to hold his shoulders. She then took a step back, and her left hand moved down until it found his wrist.

His right wrist.

“… Your arm…” she muttered as she cupped his right hand with both of hers. “It’s back.”

He smiled.

“Not just my arm.”

“… Huh?”

Erwin leaned close to her. He gently pulled down her goggles, took off her eyepatch, and then pulled the goggles up again.

She expected to find darkness, but was baffled when she didn’t.

Her vision expanded entirely, and her eyes widened immensely.

She slowly brought a hand to what should be her missing eye.

“… I can see. I…”

He nodded with a smile.

“Erwin… where are we?”

“We’re in a place where we finally don’t have to fight. We don’t have to bleed. We don’t have to cause death, and we don’t have to live more hell.”

Her pupils quivered in a daze.

“But not everything is perfect. We can still see. We know what goes on, but we can’t do anything. We must place our faith in those who remain below us.”

“You… can see?”

He nodded.

“So, you know everything that’s happened?”

“I do.”

Her complete daze then vanished as complete embarrassment contorted on her face. Her lips curved down as her eyes widened, and a heavy blush tinged her cheeks. “D… does that mean you saw…”

He grinned. “I did.”

“Oh, Erwin…” she looked to the side, absolutely ashamed. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I did it, I just—”

“Hange,” he held her shoulders, and she looked to find the kind, radiant expression that she’d loved so much throughout her life. “It’s okay. I get why you did it.”

Her eyes saddened.

“… He misses you so much.”

Erwin frowned.

“He’s never been the same,” she said, and Erwin’s eyes saddened. “He said he’d never regret his decision, but when he’s alone, when he has time to think… I’m almost sure that he does.”

“… I know,” is what Erwin mumbled. “I know he does.”

Her mouth opened in slight surprise.

“I know what he feels. And it hurts, because I can’t do anything about it.”

She frowned sadly.

“We’re free here,” he said, letting go of her. “But we must also carry the burden of not helping those we love. In one way or another, there is always a catch. Even the prospect of peace is not liberating. It hasn’t been to me, at least. I’ve been freed from that hell, but my comrades have not. I must watch them suffer while unable to help, and so I feel this is a new kind of hell.”

“I understand,” she nodded sincerely. “I know that I’m dead now. I know. But I wish I could go back and help more. Levi… his squad. Onyankopon. They’re all left alone to deal with Eren's mess. Heh,” she chuckled sadly, “it **_is_** a hell of its own.”

“But we cannot change it,” he said. “And so we must at the very least enjoy our small peace. We don’t have to fight anymore, and in the end, we will meet again with those we had to bid goodbye.”

Her brows furrowed, and her eyes narrowed in a wide smile.

In life, in death…

Erwin always gave her hope.

God, he was light.

He was so radiant.

Sometimes he shined so bright she had to avert her eyes.

She felt this way, Levi had felt this way.

She hugged him again.

“I missed you so much, Erwin…”

“We missed you, too,” he returned the hug.

She pulled back with a confused frown. “… We?”

“Just look around,” he stepped to the side and extended his arm to the right, as though he were introducing something to her.

Suddenly, she saw them all.

Her eyes widened with a shaky gasp as she saw her fallen comrades.

“… Mike… Moblit…” she took two steps forward as her hands trembled.

“It’s good to see you, Section Commander,” Moblit smiled.

“… You guys…” she ran to them and hugged both of them, one in each arm. They smiled and rubbed her back as she freely held them tight.

She pulled back and touched their cheeks separately, as though she were wondering whether this was real, whether this was truly happening, and whether she was truly touching their skin.

Hange sighed shakily, and saw all the soldiers in the background just chatting away.

Her eyes widened when she saw Sasha with her back turned, and Shadis was nearby.

Keith… he was dead? When did he die?

“You didn’t fail me, Hange,” Erwin spoke up, and she turned to look at him. “You did your best. You did so well, fought so well. I’m proud of you. You’ve fought hard, so now…” he approached her, and held her shoulders. “Now it’s time for you to rest. It’s hard, but you’ll have to let go. You’ll have to let go of what’s happening down there, and you have to let go of Levi.”

She frowned, and her eyes narrowed painfully.

“One day… we will see him again,” Erwin smiled. “And when we do, I will finally act on my promise.”

“… You will?” her eyes widened in shock.

“Yes,” he smiled. “I will marry him.”

She grinned. She then hugged him hard, resting her head on his chest.

With a shaky sigh, she wished those she’d left behind the best. That they could accomplish their mission, that they could save Eren from himself, and that they could create a world where blood and violence didn’t have to be necessary.

She wanted to be with them, but she will listen to Erwin.

She will let go.

She will join her comrades, she will join Erwin, and she will wait for him.

She will wait for Levi. She will **_always_** wait for him.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave kudos and a comment if you enjoyed this! Bookmarks are lovingly appreciated, too.
> 
> This was a self-indulgent fic because I'm floored by what's transpiring. I've never been a big fan of Hange, I think she's cool but I'm otherwise indifferent to her. And yet, I'm shocked plenty by her dying. Her meeting with Erwin again wrecked me. I can't wait for the chapter to finally be out so I can read the whole thing and suffer more.
> 
> I love it because, if it's not a hallucination, we can be sure that there's an afterlife, either through paths or not.
> 
> Levi is alone, he has officially lost every single person he's ever loved. Main cast have each other, Warriors have each other, but Levi has no one. He's crippled and alone. But if the afterlife thing is true, there is hope, and so him dying wouldn't be sad because he would be reunited with his friends and, for the first time, he'd be at peace. It brings me great solace and I hope this happens.
> 
> In the event you'd like to send fic prompts or fan-girl about Eruri/Attack on Titan, here's my [Tumblr](https://bipabrena.tumblr.com/ask) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/AMorteToMal), or just comment your prompt ideas in the comments. I'm having fun writing lately.


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